More emotional baggage for Snape

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 41459

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "darrin_burnett" <bard7696 at a...> wrote:
> Frankie and Amy discussed Snape's baggage by quoting me first:
> 
 
> > Darrin wrote:
> > > > Snape has never seemed able to deal with the fact
> > > >  
> > > > that James had his life in his hands at one point. Perhaps 
> > > > Snape accurately called James' motivations -- essentially 
> > > > deciding the prank was going too far -- but the fact
> > > > remains, James saved Snape.
> > 
> > Then Amy Z wrote:
> > > Call me slow, but on my most recent reading of PA it
> > > finally dawned on me that when Harry says, rightly, "I
> > > just saved all our lives," that includes Snape. 
> > >   >>snip<<
> > > So if Dumbledore tells Snape this, then Snape owes his
> > > life not only to that insufferable so-and-so James,
> > > but now to Harry himself.
> > 
> 
> Frankie:
>  
> > I don't think Dumbledore would have told Snape anything much
> > afterwards as the truth revolves around assisting two convicted 
> > felons(Sirius and Buckbeak) and would open the way for blackmail. 
> > 
<Snip> 
> 
Darrin again:

> God, I would hope Dumbledore didn't tell Snape. If Snape got any 
> more in debt to people he hated, he might pour the Global 
> Thermonuclear Potion into the pumpkin juice supply and be done with 
> it.
> 
> Maybe one of the reasons he hates Hermione so is because she 
> distracted Quirrell, keeping Snape from being the one to save the 
> day and discharge this stupid life debt once and for all.
> 
<Snip>
> 
> Darrin
> -- Yeah, I keep harping on it, but damn it, Snape is really        
> immmature.

Well, as a MAGIC DISHWASHER adherent I would assume that Dumbledore 
did tell Snape - and the pumpkin juice is still Global Thermonuclear 
Potion free! :-)

I'm not entirely sure that Snape's hatred of James *now* is for 
exactly the same reasons he would have had at 16, when James had just 
saved his life. I think that then, yes, there was bitter resentment 
and a real need to 'call James down' ('he was trying to save his own 
skin as much as mine; if that werewolf had eaten me the famous James 
Potter would have been in Azkaban' etc).

But does he hate James for the same reasons now?

The only thing we know about teenage!Snape is:
"Snape's always been fascinated by the Dark Arts, he was famous for 
it at school. Slimy, oily, greasy haired kid, he was. Snape knew more 
curses when he arrived at school than half the kids in seventh year 
and he was part of a gang of Slytherins who nearly all turned out to 
be Death Eaters.

Rosier and Wilkes - they were both killed by Aurors the year before 
Voldemort fell. The Lestranges ... they're in Azkaban. Avery ... he's 
still at large. " (GoF UK hardback p. 460 - 461)

Firstly, consider the source of this information - Sirius Black, the 
same guy who played the Prank (down, boy!) on Snape, and who still 
hates him now ("Sirius and Snape were eyeing each other with the 
utmost loathing." GoF p. 618)

Take out the bits where Sirius may be displaying bias and you get:
Snape was well known for being good at, and liking DADA (top of the 
class, maybe?). He knew a lot of curses when he arrived at school. He 
had greasy hair. He had friends in Slytherin House. 

So... at 16 Snape was doing well in at least some classes and had 
friends. It's a reasonable *assumption* that his schooldays were not 
deeply unhappy -in fact, he may well have been happy at Hogwarts 
until the Prank came along.

And then James saves his life.

Saved his life so that he could grow up to follow Lord Voldemort and 
do heaven-knows-what sort of crimes. Saved his life so he 
could 'turn', spy on his old schoolfriends and possibly be the source 
of the information that got them killed or imprisoned. Saved his life 
so he could end up teaching at Hogwarts (for whatever reason) - a job 
which he quite clearly hates.

I wouldn't be remotely surprised if the reason the *adult* Snape 
hates James Potter is because he thinks he would have been better off 
if he *had* died at 16 - at a point where he was happy, reasonably 
successful, and his death would have been genuinely mourned by his 
friends.

And what happened to James? He got to die a hero's death after a 
presumably happy life, leaving behind a mass of grieving people and a 
son who idolises him. 

Oh, yeah, I bet Snape *hates* James Potter. Worse, he was left in 
debt to him. James saved him for a miserable, regret-full adulthood, 
purely [Snape's viewpoint] to save James's OWN skin - and Snape is 
the one who ended up with the life-debt.

I also think the 'look' at Harry at the end of GoF may possibly 
represent the moment when Harry stops being 'James Potter Jr.' for 
Snape. We'll have to see. But by the end of GoF Snape and Harry are 
on the same side, and they both know it. They've both rescued each 
other (Snape was on the team that rescued the injured Harry from 
Crouch!Moody, don't forget). 

And Snape is now free of the life-debt to James. If he wants to work 
with James's son, Harry, it is now Snape's own free choice. No longer 
a life-debt, but a shared belief that defeating Lord Voldemort is 
worth whatever it may take.

Pip
- who doesn't think Snape is immature. Just someone with enough 
emotional baggage to work through that he is going to take an awful 
long time to become emotionally mature.